Minnesota is the land of Lutherans. I think there are more Lutheran (or in Minnesotan accent, Looteren) churches here than any other state of the Union.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) gathered here this past Sunday to vote on whether to allow homosexual ministers to practice as working ministers in the Lutheran Church. The vote passed in favor of homosexual ministers, with tears of joy on one side, and tears of grieving on the other.
Interestingly, as the ELCA was scheduled to vote at 2pm on Sunday, a tornado ripped through the Twin Cities at that same time; the first to hit downtown Minneapolis in 90 years, I’m told.
Curiously, it hit the the the central meeting place of the ELCA convention: the Central Lutheran Church of Minneapolis. Even more curiously, while the Church went mostly unharmed, there was one part that was damaged: the steeple itself was toppled, while the rest of the church stood:
My family suggested the tornado was no coincidence; that God was involved and deliberately sent it as a sign. I wasn’t so sure; I think religious people are all too quick to attribute to God what is easily explained by coincidence.
Now I see popular Protestant minister John Piper posted on his blog that he, too, believes this to be a “gentle but firm warning to the ELCA”, an instance of God intervening to show his displeasure.
Now I’ve blogged before about homosexuality in Christianity. As Messianic apologist John McKee has stated, it’s an issue ripping apart Christianity (and Judaism, for that matter); it will undoubtedly be an issue in the Messianic movement as we enter a new decade.
The issue of homosexuality is not going away anytime soon, especially with the homosexual agenda and political bloc for gay rights that have emerged on the world scene. Today, many Christian denominations are dividing over this issue. Many evangelicals are greatly concerned that a firm Biblical ethic is being tossed out the window in favor of extreme compromise with sin. As many evangelicals leave their denominations, this is where only the emerging Messianic movement in the future can offer a valid and more consistent theological perspective given our high view of the Torah. In the future, we could actually see ourselves significantly swell in numbers. Yet in order to do this, we must become a more stable and mature spiritual movement, and engage more with the world as God’s Word does indeed have answers for those in bondage!
-John McKee
It’s worth discussing, then: was the tornado in Minneapolis at the same day and hour of the ELCA vote, the tornado that toppled the steeple of the Lutheran Church, was it a sign from God? Or was it just a coincidence? What do you fine blog readers think?